The present invention pertains to image analysis methods used to extract shape information from images of cells.
Cell shape is a recognized indicator of cell type and/or condition. Thus, it is possible to identify many cell types and to distinguish them from other cell types based on the cells' shapes. In addition, many interesting biological conditions may be correlated with cell shape. Biological “conditions” of interest to researchers include disease states, normal unperturbed states, quiescent states, states induced by exogenous biologically-active agents, etc. Valuable insight may be gained by inducing a biological condition through a genetic manipulation, exposure to a particular agent (e.g., a compound, radiation, a field, etc.), deprivation of required substance, and other perturbations. Such a condition may cause changes in a particular cell's shape, and the cell's modified shape may be indicative of that particular condition. In this regard, there known correlations between cell shape and cell condition. Agents that affect cytoskeleton, adhesion, regulatory signaling pathways, cell cycle, cause significant and specific changes in cell morphology.
In drug discovery work, valuable information can be obtained by understanding how a potential therapeutic agent affects a cell. This information may give some indication of the mechanism of action associated with the compound. As present, little or no formal effort has been made to correlate cell condition with cell shape. To the extent that cell shape analyses are performed at all, the results are typically reported in qualitative terms based on observations of cells using various microscopy techniques. Given that there are some known correlations between cell shape and cell condition, the ability to quickly determine whether a population of cells has a particular modified shape could provide a valuable tool in assessing the mechanism of action of an uncharacterized compound that has been tested on the population of cells. Therefore, it would be desirable to have improved techniques for analysis of cell shapes.